| Administrative History | The Committee's early minutes are much preoccupied with the shortage of bodies available to meet the competing demands of Aberdeen's two universities, King's College and Marischal College, and their equitable distribution amongst their four medical lecturing staff. Frequent and irregular meetings about these matters appear to give way to an annual meeting by c 1861, the union of the colleges to form the University of Aberdeen (est. 1860) clearly doing much to ease its administration.
Originally, bodies were offered to each lecturer [of Anatomy and Surgery] in turn, however, on 13 February 1857 the senatus of Marischal College proposed a motion, forwarded by doctors Lizars and Pirie, that the bodies be distributed to the classes of Practical Anatomy in proportion to the number of students attending each class. Doctors Redfern and Kerr strongly objected on the grounds that this would prejudice the Anatomy lectures at King's College, however, following much debate, the motion was finally carried at a special committee meeting held on 10 December 1857.
In order to prevent unfair advantage to either school, a provisio was made that students should register for classes by signing their own name and address, thus preventing lecturers from 'dishonestly inflating their student numbers.' This solution was similar to that adopted in Edinburgh in response to a shortage of bodies there, both cities contrasting with Glasgow, which was deemed to have more than sufficient supply for its needs. At a meeting of 8 November 1859, it was noted that the shortage of bodies in Aberdeen was not helped by the fact that bodies were being disposed of before being made available to the medical schools.
The Committee's annual general meeting was held in early November. The treasurers report and accounts (for the academic year September to September) comprise a short statement of accounts; register of student numbers; and details of numbers and provenance of bodies brought to the Funeratory or Parochial Burying House (including how many were claimed, how many buried, how many left for use of the Schools). Initially, the sources of supply were very local, viz Aberdeen Poorhouse, Old Machar Poorhouse, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen City Hospital and Aberdeen Mental Hospital. However, by the late 1920s, co-operation with Public Assistance Officers and Medical Officers of Health saw these sources expand to include Perth Poorhouse, Baldovan Institution, Montrose Royal Asylum, Woodcot (Stonehaven), and Kincardineshire Comb. Poorhouse. |